FORWARD MARCH: TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE

I had planned to cover an important topic that’s being
brought to light in recent times with this week’s column. Needless to say the
events that unfolded yesterday in Ottawa put that on the back burner.

As we reflect on yesterday’s events and let the questions of “Why?” and “How?”
run through our heads, keep in mind and take solace that we live in one of the
greatest countries in the world where events like these are few and far
between. Take solace in the men and women who are protecting this country and
its citizens by risking their life running towards the gunfire. Take solace
that our media focused on getting the facts straight, not sensationalizing the
drama and producing news in an articulate manner.

Acts of terrorism are not an everyday occurrence for us
Canadians. However, the way our country responded made it look like this is
just another day and unflinchingly we remain together a powerful nation. We
have set the bar and we will continue to keep the true north strong and free. More after the jump.

To the friends and family of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, our thoughts and prayers are
with you during this difficult time. Thank you for your service, Corporal. You’re
a star.

To Sargeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, if you weren’t a national hero before, you’re
now a national treasure.

The league made the right call by canceling the Senators and
Leafs game, no doubt. It was also beautiful to see the Pittsburgh Penguins pay
tribute by playing the Canadian national anthem even though they were playing
Philadelphia, and back in Anaheim, they offered a moment of silence.

How about that Canucks game the other night?! Sigh. Yes,
Ryan Miller picked up the loss. No, this is not a sign of Ryan Miller getting
weak in his play.

The Dallas Stars ice a very, very, VERY scary team that for the past few years
have been flying underneath everyone’s radar. The Stars can pretty much be the
poster boys for how to manage a rebuild by trades and developing draft picks.
For the past three years or so they’ve been quietly making moves down in big ol’
Texas with nobody giving them any thought. If they don’t win the Cup this
season, (they have my vote) they will within the next 5 years. You can take
that to the bank.

(Please don’t send hate mail if you lose your life savings by betting on the Dallas Stars. Probably not the first time that sentence has been spoken.)

Vancouver is in St. Louis tonight to take on the Blues. There’s quite a flu buggoing around that is leaving some of the Blues players well…rather blue. The
Canucks will obviously use that to their advantage. They should be able to
bounce back from the loss to the Stars, even though this is the second
game of a three game roadie but they’re going to need much better games from Kevin Bieksa and Luca Sbisa. The defensive core has looked shaky to start the year, and they are a part of the team that one could
say the fans were banking on. Can’t be leaving the goaltenders out to
dry.

All that being said, it’s still only five games
into the season. It’s no time to panic as there’s a long road ahead of the
team. Now’s the time to get their bearings and start looking at working as one
big well-oiled machine.

I’ll probably regret saying that.

A LITTLE PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK…

I mentioned earlier how I was going to talk about an important topic. That
topic is mental illness and I’m going to talk about some things you may not
think of when it comes to professional hockey players. Actually, athletes in
general but my focus is on hockey.

The National Hockey League definitely has the right idea with their Hockey
Talks campaign but it needs to continue year round. The conversation has to be
ongoing not only with players and personnel but hockey fans alike. The hockey
community is probably one of the most welcoming and considerate groups of
people going. It’s also very small. We need to make sure everyone takes care of
everyone.

That being said, I’m ending this week’s column a little short today because I
still haven’t got my wits about me with what happened in our nation’s capital.
I live about an hour away and have friends and family living in the downtown
area. Everyone’s okay but obviously shaken up.

Take a couple minutes out of your day to thank a soldier or first responder for
their service today.